Short Wins – Mayan Apocalypse Edition; The World Didn’t End, But There Are New Cases On Restitution, Health Care Fraud, Federal Stalking, and Sequestration of Witnesses

One would have thought that, with the end of the world predicted for Friday of last week, our nation’s appellate courts would have spent their last week on Earth with family or friends, rather than cranking out wins for folks charged with federal crimes.

Perhaps circuit court judges have access to better science than those who thought that the movie 2012 was a documentary set in the future. Our federal courts of appeal cranked out a whopping 6 victories for people accused of crimes in federal court last week. Perhaps they were simply trying to clear their docket up for more relaxed figgy pudding on Tuesday.

There are some good cases here involving a wide range of federal criminal topics – restitution, gun sentencing, trial sequestration, stalking using a telecommunications device, and civil rights violations. It’s a nice stocking stuffer of law for this slow week.

To the victories!

1. United States v. McRae et al, Fifth Circuit: Former police officers David Warren, Gregory McRae, and Travis McCabe were convicted in the same trial of offenses arising out of the death of Henry Glover, a private citizen, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Because Mr. Warren demonstrated that he suffered specific and compelling prejudice based on the district court’s refusal to sever his trial from his co-defendants, the court abused its discretion in denying Mr. Warren’s motions to sever. Consequently, Mr. Warren’s convictions and sentences were vacated and the case remanded for a new trial. As to Mr. McRae, the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for denying Mr. Glover’s descendants and survivors the right of access to the courts. As a result, that conviction was vacated and the case remanded for resentencing. As to Mr. McCabe, the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting him a new trial because of newly discovered evidence.

2. United States v. Cochrane, Sixth Circuit: Appellant was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 41 months in prison for the firearms conviction and to a consecutive one-year term for violating the conditions of his supervised release. The district court’s failure to explain why it imposed consecutive sentences was an abuse of discretion. As a result, appellant’s supervised release violation sentence was vacated and the case remanded for resentencing.

3. United States v. Engelmann, Eighth Circuit: Appellant was convicted of several bank and wire fraud offenses. He filed a motion for a new trial and evidentiary hearing based on, among other things, an alleged conversation between two government witnesses during the trial that apparently violated the sequestration order. The district court abused its discretion in denying appellant’s request for an evidentiary hearing. Without the hearing, the court lacked a principled way to determine whether the alleged conversation violated the sequestration order or whether any violation prejudiced appellant. Consequently, remand was required to further develop those issues.

4. United States v. Sharma, Fifth Circuit: Two doctors pled guilty to defrauding health care insurers. As part of their sentences, the district court ordered them to pay over $43 million in restitution to 32 victims and 30 private insurers. Because the amount awarded exceeded the insurers’ actual losses by millions of dollars, the district court abused its discretion in adopting the unsupported loss figures. The restitution order was vacated and the case remanded for recalculation of the award.

5. United States v. Tucker, Third Circuit: Appellant pled guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. At sentencing, the government argued that appellant should be subject to a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence based on three prior convictions for “serious drug offenses.” Because one of the prior convictions did not qualify as a serious drug offense, appellant’s sentence was vacated and the case remanded for resentencing.

6. United States v. Grimes, Eighth Circuit: Appellant was convicted of 19 counts based on stalking and using the mail and telephone to make threatening and harassing communications. Counts 12-17 were multiplicitous because they arose out of a single course of conduct. Counts 13-17, as well as the special assessments applicable to these counts, were vacated.